OK, in the real world I think that "atlas shrugged" is a load of elitist BS that has no relevance outside the daydreams of selfish sociopaths with a superiority complex the size of a small galaxy.

In the twisted nightmare world of judge dredd, however, atlas shrugged might work.

For a dredd storyline, imagine the productive, successful, wealthy, creative people of MC1 finally tiring of living under the judge's boot and being subject to the dictates of the judges whims with no say in the laws forced on them at gunpoint.

So they leave MC1 en masse and form their own society, free from the mindless lumped masses of MC1 citizenry and the tyranny of the judges.

MC1 begins to fall apart as that tiny minority of working, creative, productive, ambitious, driven people was all that was keeping anything running. With the working minority basically giving MC1 good look at it's collective middle finger and leaving, how do the judges keep things running without industrialists, innovators, creators, doers, builders, etc.? Sure you got robot labor, but what about that essential spark of creativity and innovation? What about ambition and drive? When the people with them leave and begin to carve a society out of the cursed earth, what happens to MC1?

This could make a great judge dredd storyline, and I wanted to share the idea for anyone here to use.

I don't know if that could get past the 'leaving en masse' stage... for one reason.

The Justice Department is dedicated to (if not obsessed with) remaining in power. That means maintaining the status quo. Anyone of the 'inventive, ambitious, innovative elite' with the drive to organise and promote such a scheme would be under routine PSU surveillance as a matter of course. Being a genius in MC-1 is just as bad as being a serial killer in the eyes of the Department... it's just that a genius creates trouble of a different kind to being Laughing Lennie the Hedge-Trimmer Killer, Scourge of Sector Seventeen.

And taking away the 'creative spark' that keeps the engines of the city's industries ticking over would be a direct threat to that status quo.

So someone in the 'elite' would come up with the plan and then share it with others. Unless they can meet somewhere totally isolated from Department electronic surveillance - which in itself would raise a red flag - they would run the risk of the Wally Squad penetrating their scheme.

"A very wise man once taught me a valuable lesson...
"In space we have nothing. Nothing at all."

Closest things that spring to mind in the strips themselves are a self contained Megasphere of hedonists within the Meg itself (Die Laughing) and a million colonists leaving the Meg on the starship Nutopia to found a space colony (Something Wicked).

I agree that for a lot of the period where the city is being run by Judges, such idealism will be watched and checked. Bachmann used her black operative network to purge one of the T Town settlements of 'subversive' immigrants from MC1 and also a liberal minded Governor.

Iron Warrior. wrote:OK, in the real world I think that "atlas shrugged" is a load of elitist BS that has no relevance outside the daydreams of selfish sociopaths with a superiority complex the size of a small galaxy.

Would the rich and such really leave I think not, why, well as I remember MC1 voted to keep the Judges in power and if I was rich would I flee to set up another city or stay and keep being paid lots of money doing what I am doing

Ignoring current devastation, prior to Day of Chaos the rich risked living in a city where there wealth might not insulate them completely from endemic crime. Added to that even lawyers cannot be guaranteed to keep them free from the long arm of the Justice Department if they transgress some of the myriad laws and regulations. Escaping the city gives them easier or legal access to various proscribed substances (including Stookie).

Historically attempts to isolate themselves from the poorer end of society by moving to Condominiums in Earth's orbit, met with disaster when the Justice Department forced them to allocate a percentage of living space to welfare citizens.

Plus Mega City has been the focus of Judicial and organised crime coups, invasions from mutants/foriegn powers/dimension threats and plagues and terrorist attroticities every two or three years ! As of 2135 The population is now a sixteenth of what it was at the dawn of the century.

My Target has a TON of minis all 40 to 50 off. I dont know where they have been hiding because I have never found more than a few boosters at any one time. Now they have a lot. Check your Target if you are still into minis.

Iron Warrior. wrote:OK, in the real world I think that "atlas shrugged" is a load of elitist BS that has no relevance outside the daydreams of selfish sociopaths with a superiority complex the size of a small galaxy.

In the twisted nightmare world of judge dredd, however, atlas shrugged might work.

For a dredd storyline, imagine the productive, successful, wealthy, creative people of MC1 finally tiring of living under the judge's boot and being subject to the dictates of the judges whims with no say in the laws forced on them at gunpoint.

So they leave MC1 en masse and form their own society, free from the mindless lumped masses of MC1 citizenry and the tyranny of the judges.

They just did, in Dark Justice. Took off in a generation ship called The Mayflower, never to return.

Didn't last long. They inadvertently brought in Judge Death and his brothers. The four Dark Judges pretty much wiped out all but a handful of them. It was only through Dredd's and Anderson's intervention that even a handful of them survived.